Why Belmont
Belmont is a city situated in San Mateo County, California, positioned along the San Francisco Peninsula roughly halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. Occupying the northern boundary of Silicon Valley, the municipality covers just over four and a half square miles of land. The name Belmont is derived from an Italian phrase meaning "beautiful mountain," which refers to a symmetrically shaped hill in the nearby terrain. The municipality is bounded by San Mateo to the north, San Carlos to the south, Redwood Shores to the east, and a protected public watershed to the west.
Historically part of the early Rancho de las Pulgas land grant—a legacy reflected in the name of the prominent Alameda de las Pulgas thoroughfare—Belmont was officially incorporated in 1926. A key historical feature of the city is Ralston Hall, a prominent landmark located on the grounds of Notre Dame de Namur University. Constructed by Bank of California founder William Chapman Ralston, the mansion was expanded around an earlier villa previously owned by Count Leonetto Cipriani, an Italian nobleman. Another noteworthy structure is a surviving building from the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, which was relocated to Belmont Avenue by E.D. Swift shortly after the exposition closed.
Outdoor areas and public amenities are distributed throughout the city's terrain. In the local highlands and foothills, visitors can find the Waterdog Lake Open Space, which encompasses a well-known local body of water. Other municipal recreational spaces include Twin Pines Park, Semeria Park, and Davey Glen Park. Additionally, the city is recognized for its strict public health policies, having enacted a sweeping municipal ordinance in 2009 that bans smoking in all commercial establishments, public parks, and multi-story residential buildings.
Overnight guests in the city are served by accommodations such as the Hyatt House, an extended-stay residential hotel that frequently hosts corporate travelers visiting nearby corporate facilities, including the headquarters of Oracle. Belmont is accessible via regional public transportation systems. Local bus routes across the county are operated by SamTrans, while commuter rail transportation along the peninsula is provided by Caltrain, which stops at Belmont station to connect passengers north toward San Francisco and south toward San Jose and Gilroy.
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